Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE
Ron nor giving any sign that she had heard him. “Oh, hang on — password.
Abstinence.”
“Precisely,” said the Fat Lady in a feeble voice, and swung forward to
reveal the portrait hole.
“What’s up with her?” asked Harry.
“Overindulged over Christmas, apparently,” said Hermione, rolling her
eyes as she led the way into the packed common room. “She and her friend
Violet drank their way through all the wine in that picture of drunk monks
down by the Charms corridor. Anyway...”
She rummaged in her pocket for a moment, then pulled out a scroll of
parchment with Dumbledore’s writing on it.
“Great,” said Harry, unrolling it at once to discover that his next lesson
with Dumbledore was scheduled for the following night. “I’ve got loads to
tell him — and you. Let’s sit down —”
But at that moment there was a loud squeal of “Won-Won!” and Lavender
Brown came hurtling out of nowhere and flung herself into Ron’s arms.
Several onlookers sniggered; Hermione gave a tinkling laugh and said,
“There’s a table over here Coming, Ginny?”
“No, thanks, I said I’d meet Dean,” said Ginny, though Harry could not
help noticing that she did not sound very enthusiastic. Leaving Ron and
Lavender locked in a kind of vertical wrestling match, Harry led Hermione
over to the spare table.
“So how was your Christmas?”
“Oh, fine,” she shrugged. “Nothing special. How was it at Won-Won’s?”
“I’ll tell you in a minute,” said Harry. “Look, Hermione, can’t you —?”
“No, I can’t,” she said flatly. “So don’t even ask.”
“I thought maybe, you know, over Christmas —”
“It was the Fat Lady who drank a vat of five-hundred-year-old wine, Harry,
not me. So what was this important news you wanted to tell me?”
She looked too fierce to argue with at that moment, so Harry dropped the
subject of Ron and recounted all that he had overheard between Malfoy and
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